Physicians, not the government, need to take the lead in cutting costs, writes the author of The Future of Bioethics, Howard Brody, M.D., Ph.D. The benefit is that patients will not have to wonder if anyone is coming “between me and my doctor” as physicians themselves identify costs which can be cut with no harm to patient care.

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Since heart disease remains the number one cause of deaths in the U.S., the research offers a bright spot. The simplest treatment may be one of the best ones. A new study shows the more cardiac rehab patients do—Medicare pays for 36—the better their outcomes four years later. Those studied were 47% less likely to die and 31% less likely to have a heart attack.

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With the necessary 60 votes, the U.S. Senate passed a test of support for its health care reform bill. Assuming all 60 votes hold, the bill is expected to achieve final passage before the holiday break.

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Two news organizations asked more than 800 medical experts and medical historians to choose the 10 most important advances from the last 10 years.

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This is one of the best holiday presents the Americas could get. It is clear that the pandemic H1N1 flu is declining significantly—although it still is a risk for kids from five to 14. The World Health Organization (WHO) has not predicted, but will not rule out, the possibility of a “third wave,” it said earlier this week.

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Cancer researchers have unlocked the genetic codes for skin and lung cancers, which means it will be possible to identify when genes “go wrong,” and cancer follows. This is a revolutionary development. No other word will do.

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The H1n1 pandemic influenza has hit 50 million residents or 1 in 6 people, according to the CDC.
In the last week, after a dip, cases have increased markedly.
For the first time, seasonal influenza is being reported. It is a B strain type and is included in the 2009 seasonal flu vaccine. It is not too late to get that shot if you have not done so.

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McDonald’s, Burger King and Costco would not buy the beef the USDA sells to schools. Colonel Sanders and Campbell Soup won’t buy the chicken. And this is after the USDA recently upgraded its standards.

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Is this Tamiflu-gate?
British researchers reviewed 20 studies of the drug stockpiled all over the world for influenza and pandemic emergencies and found eight of them lacking sufficient data to be useful. Therefore, they tossed those out. Without those eight, Tamiflu does not look so good.

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The latest prediction about the H1N1 pandemic is that this may turn out to be one of the “mildest” pandemics on record, says one expert. Still, it is not over until it is over—novel viruses, which this one is, can change unexpectedly. Nevertheless, it may well be that the world has been spared a brutal pandemic which could also have had brutal economic consequences. The analysis published today was federally funded. Researchers came from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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